Journalists & Corruption Issue

Jim Clancy (left), CNN International Anchor, and Cambodian
journalist Chhay Sophal in Bali, Indonesia in January 2008.

By Chhay Sophal

Bali, Indonesia: As media is powerful to join to the world governments, civil society, and private sector for fighting against corruption, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOCD) brought a group of journalists from several least developing nations to participate in a media forum to discuss their role and responsibility to tackle the issue. The forum held on 31st January in Bali, Indonesia, aimed to raise journalists’ awareness of their role and responsibility and how to deal with challenges for news covering on corruption.

Speaking at the forum, Simon Derry, Director of BBC World Service Trust, said that corruption is mostly dealing with politicians, businesspeople, and the powerful and that the role of journalists must know how to involve ordinary people and how to persuade them and other civil society to talk about the issue. Mobilizing ideas and pubic opinion, he said, is also part of the process to best share in the society. However, he said, ethic is the back bone of journalists for doing their job.

Based on the answers collected by Simon from only 20 journalists of different countries, the key corruption is amongst government (16), private sector (1), individual (2), impunity (1), drug trafficking (1). Although most of the respondents say their media organizations support investigative journalism, they say intimidation, safety & security, and probably killing are the main concerns for covering corruption stories.

In his session on “Investigative Journalism and the Role of the Media in the Anti-Corruption Debate”, Jim Clancy -- CNN International Anchor – said journalists must keep communications open, keep doing, keep documenting, and keep networking by involving as many people as possible in civil society and interest groups, lawmakers and ministries, legal community and judges, business community, international partners, and fellow journalists. He also recommended that journalists must be careful with lying sources and try to push the source on the record and think about fairness and balance without bias.

Hon. John G. William, Chairman of the Global Organisation of the Parliamentarians against Corruption, said small groups of powerful people and the dictators in the world do not want journalists’ true information. They threaten, he said, and lock up journalists and try to control everything under the sun because their accountability is beyond control. William said accountability of democratic countries is based on the top-down rights in which people is first and then civil society and independent media, parliament, and government. But in some dictatorial nations, he stressed, they put rights upside down in which the government is first and then cabinet, bureaucracy, and people.

The forum was part of the UN Anti-Corruption Convention held on 28th January-1st February, 2008 and it was supported by DFID, IPI, UNDP, and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An adoption was made at the end of the forum to recognize journalists’ difficulties in many countries and in the spirit of their solidarity.

Global combating trillions of dollars looting each year

View in the conference hall in Bali, Indonesia, in January 2008.

By Chhay Sophal

Bali, Indonesia: Recognizing corruption as a cancer and a communicable disease in each society, the world leaders, policy makers, stakeholders of both government and the civil society, film producers, movie stars, musicians, and singers, including media people, from more than 100 nations gathered in Bali, Indonesia, for the “United Nations Convention against Corruption” to find out an effective way to treat the chronic disease. A group of Cambodian delegates from government and civil society also attended the five days event, held between 28 January-1 February 2008.

A joint report from the United Nations and the World Bank (WB) said corruption and tax evasion are estimated to total $1 trillion to $1.6 trillion a year and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says this ‘disease’ cannot be eradicated unless a concerted campaign is waged by all people in every society. "Corruption hurts us all, therefore fighting it is a shared responsibility - we all have a duty and the power to say 'no' to corruption," said Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC Executive Director, at his opening ceremony.

The UNODC and the WB on September 17 2007 announced a broad new effort called “Stolen Asset Recovery”/StAR Initiative to help developing nations build capacity to recover billions of dollars of looted funds. According to the WB, it is estimated that developing countries lose US$20-40 billion each year through corruption and money laundering. Every US$100 million of stolen assets returned to a developing country could fund immunization for 4 million children, water connections for 250,000 households and malaria-treatment for 50-100 million people.

In her remark at the conference, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WB Managing Director, says all delegates in the UN Convention for Anti-Corruption in Bali should take collective action against corruption and that the developing countries are the victim-states of corruption and forced to comply with developed world’s standards for transparency, accountability and good governance. However, she added, corruption in these nations is “also the result of an enabling and permissive global environment”. Dr. Ngozi urged all countries to be responsible for this environment, particularly those with greater economic and political leverage.

Article 13 of the UN Convention Against Corruption states that “Each state party shall take appropriate measures to promote the active participation of individuals and groups outside the public sector, such as civil society, non-governmental organizations, and community-based organizations, in the prevention and fight against corruption.”

During the conference, representatives from dozens of nations presented their respective governments’ commitment to combat corruption -- harming society, undermining democracy, and weakening the rule of law. The state representatives also shared their experiences, and lessons learned, and sought technical assistance to take the stolen assets back from the corrupt. While corruption in some countries is out of control, the delegates also urged for collaboration by setting up working groups with technical assistance to help each other fight the common enemy.